Benin: Restructuring of Sèmè City’s governance
The Beninese government is taking a new step in its strategy to reposition Sème City as a regional hub of excellence.
In a cabinet meeting this Wednesday, several decrees were adopted to implement the institutional and functional restructuring of this innovation and knowledge campus, decided in December 2024.
These texts now define the new governance framework of Sème City, organized around four main entities: a Foundation in charge of strategic steering and general coordination, a Development Agency, an independent Academic Commission, and public and private institutions located on the site.
The Academic Commission, a key component of this reform, is tasked with defining the academic strategy, evaluating requests for program creation, accrediting institutions, and ensuring quality control and accreditation. Although administratively attached to the Foundation, it will enjoy management autonomy.
The decrees also specify the conditions for the creation and operation of higher education institutions in Sème City, whose main missions will be education, research, and entrepreneurship. The standard statutes of public higher education institutions are defined, as is that of the Sème City Institute of Technology and Innovation (SCITI), a public entity with a scientific, technical and cultural mission, endowed with administrative and financial autonomy.
The ministries involved have been instructed to ensure the diligent application of these provisions, which are supposed to allow Sème City to fully achieve its ambition to be a strategic lever for Benin’s socio-economic development.
In the same vein, the cabinet has adopted other regulatory measures, including:
- – The creation of the Poultry Farm Development Company, with approval of its rules;
- – The integration of eighty justice auditors into the judiciary;
- – The appointment of statutory auditors to certain public companies;
- – The establishment of the modalities for obtaining Beninese nationality by recognition.
These decisions reflect the authorities’ intention to modernize public action and strengthen the institutions driving the country’s transformation.
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